These past few months, American security systems seem to have virtually checked out while Chinese hackers are checking in. The hackers’ jobs have even taken a turn to professionalism—hackers, apparently, get weekends off too.

Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow was MIA, which points to an early spring in our future. But we’re a little skeptical of wagering our bets on the absent shadow of a groundhog, in spite of his good track record (and what was up with last weekend’s blizzard? Oh, Phil!). Weather, life in general, it’s all unpredictable, and your data can be caught in that unforeseeable cyclone and annihilated before you can say, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

We’ve heard the phrase “one in a million” but how about “one in a quintillion”? Now there’s a term that will make you feel microbial.

There are those who should have customer service on speed dial and those who repair system errors like Mozart plunking out a piano concerto. In our technologic age where devices going haywire send people into a tailspin, an astute IT (information technology) specialist is likened to a reliable therapist.